Saturday, May 26, 2012

2006 Deisen Mataro (Barossa Valley)

This was an interesting wine for me personally to pull out of the cellar. I bought it when Brown and I (and our better halves) visited Deisen during a trip to the Barossa in 2009. If ever there was an artisan winery, then Deisen is it. An artist cum winemaker in Sabine Deisen, a pretty vineyard, a winery that looks more like a garage, and hand crafted wine labels all contribute to that artisan feel.

The wines we tried during the visit to Deisen were all impressive, but they also all tended to be fairly powerful, high-alcohol versions of what the Barossa has to offer. The question with any wine made in this style is always will it age? Is it the kind of wine best enjoyed young, or can it transition to something that mellows and develops? I think I’m probably better now than I was back in 2009 at identifying which wines end up being the latter. As such it is interesting to come back to this Deisen Mataro to see whether it has aged nicely, or whether I was seduced at the time by a wine that ultimately didn’t have the staying power.

I tasted the wine over three days and it became increasingly savoury and integrated in that time. To drink it initially tastes as much of the Barossa as it does Mataro. Site and variety have married well in this instance. Over time flavours spanned from dark berry and chocolate, a prominent Mataro spice, through to Barossan tar, some lovely tobacco, and finally some leathery notes that began to emerge. Complexity and enjoyment at once. While there is enough oomph to this wine to keep any Barossa drinker happy, there is also a sense of freshness to the fruit that is great to see at 6 years of age. My score on day 1 was 3.5 Stars, but that improvement over time saw it nudge up to 4 stars.

Has this wine aged well? Absolutely. Will it continue to do so? Yes, for at least the next five years . . . cork permitting of course.

2 comments:

Good work - re-read my own note on the '05 and see consisten themes with this. I've had a few Diesen, like yourselves introduced to them in the Barossa in '09. Generally cork seems of good quality, would rather avoid the lottery and see them under screwcap.

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